Setup on drive-less PC

  • Thread starter Thread starter G Hardy
  • Start date Start date
G

G Hardy

Hi, folks - sorry for the xpost, not sure which group this belongs in.

I got an old tablet PC on eBay and want to reinstall Win2K after having
wiped the hard drive (for reasons which are not relevant or, let's face it,
logical).

Anyway, the only removable media are floppy and CD ROM, both of which
connect via PCMCIA. I have the tablet PC's bespoke Win2K install
directories, as well as the pen driver etc on a CD.

My feeling is that I have to use a "donor" PC with the tablet's HDD
installed to put Win2K onto it UP TO A POINT, then put the HDD back in the
tablet to finish the installation.

Is there a point at which Win2K recognises the PCMCIA drive(s) _before_ it
starts tainting itself with unnecessary configuration, such as hardware
drivers, for the donor PC? In other words, when is the best time to transfer
the tablet's HDD back to the tablet?

Is there a better way to do what I'm trying to achieve? The tablet is
currently running XP, which I'm uncomfortable with as it's also installed on
another machine, and although it doesn't need internet connectivity, the
tablet's new lease of life means that the two licences would be in use at
the same time, which is not right however you interpret a EULA.

Thanks for reading...
 
G said:
My feeling is that I have to use a "donor" PC with the tablet's HDD
installed to put Win2K onto it UP TO A POINT, then put the HDD back in
the tablet to finish the installation.
Click to expand...

Not something I've ever had to do. However, I'd be tempted to copy the
installation from the Win2K CD to the HDD so you don't need the
installation files on the PCMCIA CDROM. I know this would work with
older Microsoft OSes, not sure about 2k.

Might be worth a go!

Boggy.
 
Bogwitch said:
Not something I've ever had to do. However, I'd be tempted to copy the
installation from the Win2K CD to the HDD so you don't need the
installation files on the PCMCIA CDROM. I know this would work with
older Microsoft OSes, not sure about 2k.

Might be worth a go!
Click to expand...

It's possible with Win2K, also.
 
G Hardy said:
Hi, folks - sorry for the xpost, not sure which group this belongs in.

I got an old tablet PC on eBay and want to reinstall Win2K after having
wiped the hard drive (for reasons which are not relevant or, let's face it,
logical).

Anyway, the only removable media are floppy and CD ROM, both of which
connect via PCMCIA. I have the tablet PC's bespoke Win2K install
directories, as well as the pen driver etc on a CD.

My feeling is that I have to use a "donor" PC with the tablet's HDD
installed to put Win2K onto it UP TO A POINT, then put the HDD back in the
tablet to finish the installation.

Is there a point at which Win2K recognises the PCMCIA drive(s) _before_ it
starts tainting itself with unnecessary configuration, such as hardware
drivers, for the donor PC? In other words, when is the best time to transfer
the tablet's HDD back to the tablet?

Is there a better way to do what I'm trying to achieve? The tablet is
currently running XP, which I'm uncomfortable with as it's also installed on
another machine, and although it doesn't need internet connectivity, the
tablet's new lease of life means that the two licences would be in use at
the same time, which is not right however you interpret a EULA.

Thanks for reading...
Click to expand...

When Windows is initially installed...most of the needed drivers are
initially loaded...
so if you transferred the drive prior to the hardware detection stage...it
just might work
 
G Hardy said:
Hi, folks - sorry for the xpost, not sure which group this belongs in.

I got an old tablet PC on eBay and want to reinstall Win2K after having
wiped the hard drive (for reasons which are not relevant or, let's face
it, logical).

Anyway, the only removable media are floppy and CD ROM, both of which
connect via PCMCIA. I have the tablet PC's bespoke Win2K install
directories, as well as the pen driver etc on a CD.

My feeling is that I have to use a "donor" PC with the tablet's HDD
installed to put Win2K onto it UP TO A POINT, then put the HDD back in the
tablet to finish the installation.

Is there a point at which Win2K recognises the PCMCIA drive(s) _before_ it
starts tainting itself with unnecessary configuration, such as hardware
drivers, for the donor PC? In other words, when is the best time to
transfer the tablet's HDD back to the tablet?

Is there a better way to do what I'm trying to achieve? The tablet is
currently running XP, which I'm uncomfortable with as it's also installed
on another machine, and although it doesn't need internet connectivity,
the tablet's new lease of life means that the two licences would be in use
at the same time, which is not right however you interpret a EULA.
Click to expand...

Thanks to all who replied to this little problem.

In the end, I was able to use the innards from a USB hard drive (temporarily
minus its HDD) and an old CD ROM I had lying around to cobble together a USB
CD ROM. Setting the BIOS so that it booted from CD first, and enabling
"legacy USB emulation" allowed the tablet to boot from the Win2K CD, so
apart from struggling with WinTab, I'm installing quite happily now...
 
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